The Blackwood Hotel, just north of the Lerderderg State Forest, is conducting investigations into activity on the premises involving spirits of inhabitants past.
Owners Michael Boyd and Darren Lynch took over the old pub just over a year ago, and are convinced there are ghosts at the Blackwood.
“There’s definitely an energy here,” Boyd told Star Weekly.
“There was a girl who used to live across the road from here … she was killed in the kitchen inside the hotel when the shellite iron she was using to press her clothes exploded. She had long red hair and fair skin. She’s often seen walking the halls of the pub and we’ve also seen her when we’ve been working late.”
Rumours and ‘evidence’ of paranormal activity at hotels is big business around the world, particularly in Britain and Europe and some of America’s inland states.
The Blackwood Hotel has begun operating ‘ghost tours’ through its darkened halls, with the next one slated for early May.
The Hotel was established in 1869 and was for a time used as the town morgue.
“On a recent tour, we had paranormal activity in the parlour – the cellar where the morgue slab is – and in room three there were some shadowy figures seen behind some of the customers,” said Boyd.
Henry Yau, a public relations director from Houston, recently stayed at one of America’s most famous haunted hotels.
The historic Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado was the inspiration for the hotel where Jack Nicholson served as caretaker in the 1980 Stephen King film, The Shining.
Shooting pictures of the Stanley, Yau accidentally captured what appears to be an apparition at the top of the staircase. He maintains he waited until no people were on the stairs before taking the photo and didn’t spot the ghostly image until later.
The Stanley Hotel was built in 1909 and has been operating ghost tours since it gained a reputation for haunted activity in the 1970s.
The North Kapunda Hotel in South Australia was the subject of a ‘documentary’ by ghost hunters Haunting Australia.